


New Kid State of Mind

by Menacherie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bullying, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-07-30 17:07:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20100661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menacherie/pseuds/Menacherie
Summary: The new kid was staring at him. Peter was sure of it, 100% sure of it. Yet, every time he looked over the kid was working hard at ignoring Peter.“The new kid is staring at me,” Peter mumbled into his lunch tray, just loud enough to let MJ and Ned overhear him.





	1. Chapter 1

The new kid was staring at him. Peter was sure of it, 100% sure of it. Yet, every time he looked over the kid was working hard at ignoring Peter. 

"The new kid is staring at me," Peter mumbled into his lunch tray, just loud enough to let MJ and Ned overhear him. 

MJ snorted and looked up from her book, her sandwich almost falling out of her hand. "Please don't tell me you've just now noticed?" 

Peter bristled a little bit. "No," he said honestly, and then snuck a glance over at the new kid. "I just haven't been able to get a good look at him staring." 

"You don't have eyes in the back of your head," MJ agreed, taking a bite out of her sandwich. Ned, on the other hand, was staring the new kid down. 

"What's his name?" Ned asked, reaching for his phone. MJ rolled her eyes at first and then frowned. She didn't know his name, and that, more than anything, was the most concerning part of this whole deal. 

"You're not gonna hack into the school records just to do a background check," Peter hissed, reaching for Ned's phone before Ned could.

"Why not? Just cause he looks like a high school kid doesn't mean he's not like, a spy." 

MJ motioned her sandwich towards Ned as if giving him a point. "Not you too, MJ." Peter groaned.

"Just sayin'," she told him with a shrug, picking her notebook up again. 

Ned took advantage of Peter's emotional distress and yanked Peter's phone off the lunchroom table before starting to type into the StarkPhone. 

"Ned!" Peter hissed, trying to yank it out of his hands without causing a scene. One kid staring at him was enough, he didn't need Flash's attention today. 

They both froze, however, when a big CLASSIFIED flashed across Peter's screen. "Classified?" Peter asked, grabbing his phone back from Ned. They both looked up at the new kid and back at MJ, who finally looked interested in the conversation. 

"The whole record system has been classified," Ned said. "I couldn't get into my records, yours, or even figure out who the new kid was, much less his records." 

"Who would do that?" Peter asked, frowning at his phone. 

"Maybe it's to protect you?" Ned suggested. 

"Maybe it's to protect the whole school," MJ guessed. "I mean, Ned is the best hacker we know, right? Aside from the most obvious person we know. Ned is better with computers than any of our teachers, based on their powerpoint presentations. That means the admins would have to hire someone to upgrade the cybersecurity at the school." 

Her eyebrow picked up as she looked at the both of them and they all came to the same conclusion, the school couldn't have done it, the admins and school district were too cheap to hire anyone that could out-hack Ned. And furthermore, the school district didn't have any reason to do it. 

The bell rang, and all of them startled. MJ started shoveling what was left of her sandwich into her mouth before she yanked an orange out of her lunch bag. She grabbed her bag then paused, using the orange to point at both Ned and Peter. 

"Figure this out, or not, but don't be distracted during practice." 

Ned nodded and took one more bite of his mystery meat before getting up to shove his tray in the trash. Peter stared at his tray for one more moment before glancing up to meet the New Kid's eyes. 

Blue met Brown, and the New Kid winked at Peter before disappearing into the mass of students trying to leave the lunchroom.


	2. Chapter 2

Peter hurried into chemistry, the bell ringing over his head just as he tripped into his seat. Mr. Cobbwell looked up from his computer, narrowed his eyes at Peter, and looked at the clock before waving his hand. "Whatever," he mumbled, before clicking around his computer. 

Peter breathed out a sigh of relief and looked at the equation on the board as he scrambled to get his things out of his bag. It wasn't a hard equation, not after working with Tony for the last four months. Chemistry wasn't precisely Tony Starks' favorite thing, but he used it daily. By the time he got out his binder and pen, he had it halfway figured out and started scribbling the equation down as quickly as possible. 

With one minute left to spare on the timer, Peter sat up and immediately felt like he was being watched. He slowly turned around, only to meet the same blue eyes again. The kid blinked, focusing on Peter instead of the board. He smirked at Peter and tapped his pen against his chin before winking again. 

Peter quickly turned back around, a blush dusting his cheeks. He rubbed his nose as if to get rid of the embarrassment warming him up. 

Cobbwell cleared his throat just as the timer went off, and Peter looked up as Cobbwell started to explain the equation, and then led into what they would be talking about today, as well as their project for the next two weeks. Cobbwell wrapped up his lecture relatively quickly and gave them ten minutes to start planning out their projects. Cobbwell didn't stand up and declare himself important, unlike some of his other teachers. He was more interested in what the kids came up with in their projects at the end of the week than lecturing them. 

Peter relaxed into his chair and flipped through his planner, trying to figure out when he could schedule a time to go to the library other than his free period. It was at the end of the day, and there wasn't any rule saying that he had to use his study period at the school, so he usually left early and headed over to the tower. He finally found a block of time and scribbled it in before putting everything in his bag. English was on the other side of campus, and he was going to have to book it to make it on time and avoid Flash coming out of his Chemistry class. 

"Wow," the new kid said, and Peter startled and turned around. "You're a pretty busy guy it looks like." 

Peter blinked at the accent, thick and smooth and _southern_. "Where are you from?" 

The New Kid blinked and then burst into laughter. "Rose Hill, Tennessee." He paused like he expected Peter to react to that before he smiled and held out his hand. "I'm Harley, Harley Keener." 

"Peter Parker," Peter said, shaking his hand. "You've been staring at me." 

"I might have been," Harley said, still grinning brightly. "You seemed like an interesting person." 

In the seat next to them, Jason snorted, and Harley tilted his head. "I suppose your classmate right here doesn't think so, but then, what does he know, right?" Harley winked again and didn't even flinch when the bell went off, just grabbed his bag and walked out of the door. 

Jason stared at him for a moment before looking over at Peter, as if he could explain what just happened. 

Peter quickly remembered he needed to be on the other side of the school in less than four minutes and grabbed his bag before running out of the door. 

"Hey, Penis!" he heard, but he just kept running.


	3. Chapter 3

He didn't get a chance to talk to either MJ or Ned about Harley until his free period. They all have the same free period, and they usually spent it getting ready for Academic Decathalon. That day though was Monday, and Mondays were always rough at the Tower. 

"C'mon," Peter said, clasping his hands together as he turned his big eyes on MJ. "I need to head over to the tower, I've already got like, three Code Blue messages from Halima and Adam." 

MJ narrowed her eyes at him and glanced down at her notes. She sighed. "Fine, but this means no skipping out on Wednesday's practice, even if there are to be spider things to be done," she said, pointing at him with her pen. 

"You're a lifesaver," he said, saluting her and grabbing his bag. 

"Yeah, yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now scram spiderthing." 

"Text us about New Kid!" Ned called after him, and Peter waved at him. He would text them as soon as he figured out what Halima and Adam were freaking out about.

\--

Peter slung himself over to the Tower but entered on the ground floor. As far as the other interns know, he's just a regular high school kid with no reason to be flying through the upper entrances. FRIDAY ushered him through the turnstiles quickly, letting him skip the line. His work phone began buzzing as soon as he walked through the turnstile, FRIDAY had alerted the other MINIONS that he was at the Tower. 

[HALIMA] I'm going to need you to either run my programs or help me with three orientations.

[PETER] Three? This late in the year?

[ADAM] BOSS just let us know two hours ago.

[PETER] I'm on my way up

Peter made his way to the 51st floor, where the MINIONS resided. Or as other companies like to say, the interns resided. "What's going on?" he asked as soon as he saw Halima's bright red headscarf. 

"A fuck-ton," Adam said. He winced when Halima hit his arm. "It's true!" he yelped. 

Peter grinned but rolled his eyes. "Okay I get that, but I need specifics." 

"Boss thought you were such a good fit despite your age that he went looking for more teenagers, or they found him, we aren't quite sure exactly how this all happened to be honest," Halima told him. Her mouth was slightly turned down, and he could tell she was stressed. 

Peter's own mouth was downturned. How come Tony hadn't told him any of this. "Do we know anything about them?" 

Adam nodded and grabbed his StarkPad off of his desk. "Yeah, we know their names, ages, and whatever FRIDAY grabbed for us. Which wasn't a lot, they're all your age or younger even. The first person, Halima and I sort of knew about, but we weren't sure when she was going to get here." 

Halima took over. "Princess Shuri is arriving today to start her work-study and an investigative report into American Culture and Work Standards. Adam and I have been emailing with her to try and convince her to terrify Hammer into selling us his company, but she said her brother wouldn't let her. "

"Understandable," Peter said, "not wanting to cause any international accidents." 

Peter wasn't surprised about Shuri, it would be exciting and a little nervewracking to be working near a princess, but from what he had seen and heard of her, he had a feeling they would get along. "Okay, I didn't expect her to be here so soon, but what can you do? Who are the other two?" 

"A RiRi Williams, a 15-year-old student at MIT who has created her own repulsor technology using stolen parts from her school labs," Adam said, flipping his StarkPad around to show Peter a picture. 

Peter sighed, scrubbing at his face. "So basically a miniature Tony Stark, don't we have enough of them?" 

"We get called his Mini-Me's enough," Halima said, shaking her head. 

"Tony paid off all of the stolen parts and made sure she was enrolled in online classes before moving her into the Tower. She's been here all day but was willing to wait for Shuri and Harley to come in so they could have their orientation all at the same time." Halima said, taking back the StarkPad from Adam and flipping to a picture of the New Kid. 

"Harley," Peter said flatly. 

He heard a laugh coming from the elevator, and he turned around. Harley Keener was standing there, his book bag on his back with a huge grin on his face. "Well, that secret didn't keep for long," he said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is a little bit of info dump into the next two chapters, but also, this is NOT civil war and onward compliant. Thanos isn't here yet, and won't be for a while and there was never a civil war. homecoming happened the way it did, and spider man ran into the avengers through regular hero work.

"Okay, well how did Tony pick you then?" Peter asked. 

"We're connected," Harley said, spreading his hands apart and then bringing them together. 

Halima raised her eyebrow at him. "Alright, alright, I saved his life during the Mandarin fiasco. He rebuilt the armor in my garage. He's been sending my family thank you gifts for the past few years, but I needed a place to be, and a better school since I'm smarter than all my teachers put together." 

"Thought you said were you gonna keep all that a secret," Tony said, coming out of the Private Elevator with Princess Shuri and what looked like Riri Williams. 

"Yeah well, Peter Parker looked very interesting at school, couldn't help myself," Harley said with a grin. 

"Ah-huh," Tony said and then motioned at the two young women next to him. "May I present to you all, Princess Shuri and Riri Williams, the other two geniuses rounding out your quartet." 

"We're not going to be with the other MINIONS?" Peter asked in surprise. 

"Nope, you're a special breed of intern. You'll still go to Halima and Adam if you need help with regular projects, but you'll be Avenger Interns, we're waiting on the cool name," Tony told them, pointing at everyone. 

Riri and Shuri both snorted, then looked at each other and smiled. Tony kept talking. "Harley and Peter, the intern projects for school, those are still going through Halima and Adam, everything else will be going through Bruce, Helen, Jane, and I, though I doubt any of you will need a lot of help, just raw material, and my lab space."

Riri looked excited at the prospect of a new lab space. Shuri looked intrigued, and Harley also looked excited. "Are my labs moving too?" Peter asked, slightly nervous. He had ongoing experiments.

"Yup," Tony said. "Don't worry, I've asked FRIDAY what can and cannot be moved, we'll move things over a little bit at a time, but you four will all have cubicles down here and have access to the shared lab space, as well as access to the Avenger Labs, and you four will each have your own section of floor 58, and living quarters in various levels of floors 61-100, yes Peter, even you. I've already spoken to your aunt about it." 

Peter's face split into a huge grin. His aunt had been wary about letting him bother Mr. Stark about spending the night, but sometimes it was easier to crash at the Tower if his experiments were running late. "How'd you manage that Boss?" He asked. 

"She's moving in too." 

Peter paled and leaned his head back. "Are you serious?" 

"Yup, don't worry, she has assured me that she is a "cool" aunt," Tony said, grinning at him. Peter groaned and dropped his head into his hands. This was going to be a disaster. 

"I've also taken the liberty of reprinting your security pass since we've restructured the labs. There is a cheat sheet to the new lab structure on your StarkPads," Tony motioned at Adam, who startled and handed Shuri, Harley, and Riri shiny new StarkPads. 

Peter glanced down at his phone and saw the new message. 

"Boss," FRIDAY said, disembodied voice floating from the ceiling. "Mrs. Boss has asked me to remind you that if you are late for this meeting, she will-" 

"I'm going!" Tony yelped, waving his hands around. "Peter, Halima, and Adam can handle the rest of the orientation," he said, running into the open elevator while tapping away on his phone. 

Halima nodded and then yelped. "Actually, I have programs that need to be watched," she said, motioning towards Adam and Peter. "Peter is more than capable of doing it on his own." 

She ran off to her section of the MINIONS lab, leaving Adam and Peter to finish the explanations. "Any questions?" Peter asked weakly, looking at the new badge Tony had shoved at him. 

"The badges?" Riri asked. "How do they work?" 

"Oh, you haven't met Happy yet, have you?" Peter asked with a grin. Beside him, Adam groaned and covered his face. 

"Happy's our head of security," Peter explained, "and he's very particular about our badges. We're also a green company, so we almost never do reprints of badges, waste of resources."

Shuri nodded and then grabbed Peter's badge from him. "So how do you keep me from using your badge?" she asked. 

"Each badge has a packet of information on it, that regularly gets sent to each of the several sensors on each floor. The packet includes picture identification, job status, and security levels, as well as a few other things, to the sensors. The sensors then determine if there are any anomalies and then pass that information along to FRIDAY." 

"Okay, so basically Friday just knows if I'm supposed to have this specific badge or not," Harley said, taking Peter's badge from Shuri and turning it over. 

"That would be correct," FRIDAY said, causing Riri to startle the slightest bit. 

"FRIDAY are you or KAREN going to be our lab AI?" he asked. 

"KAREN will still be working with you on any and all SPIDERLING related technology and equipment. However, I will be working with you on any other projects. BOSS has created a few more AI that I will be teaching to handle the security of the building as well as the needs of the first 20 floors and various other tasks of the building." Peter nodded as Riri proceeded to take his badge from Harley. 

"Okay, but what about the colors, do we all get gold?" 

Peter nodded, then paused and looked at Adam. "Their badges weren't with their StarkPads?" 

Adam blinked and then flushed. "Oh yeah, hold on," he said and started digging through the orientation bin. He produced three badges on lanyards and passed them out to each of them. Riri handed Peter his badge back. 

"Okay, but Adam's is orange," Riri said. 

"Because I'm just a MINION. Co-head of them, but still, the Orange means I have access to the MINION floors as well as access to any part of the Tower that I might need temporary access too while doing MINION work. For example, if I were working on a project with someone in Engineering, I would be let down to the specific floor of my collaborator. I have access to all the public spaces, on levels 4 through 10, as well as access to the MINIONS living space on floor 62." 

"Because we have gold, we technically have unrestricted free access to any level of the Tower, except the Living Quarters of people that have denied us access, which is everyone at the moment. That sort of information gets added to the packet on your badge as you meet other people in the tower and they give permission to Friday on either a short term or long term basis." Peter sighed. 

"I think it's time to do the tour now, it's way more interesting than trying to explain everything up here in the labs. FRIDAY, 1st floor."


	5. Chapter 5

Peter took them down to the first floor and showed them how to quickly slip through the turnstiles in the employee section, then brought all three of them through the back entrance, considering they had gold badges. 

"Next, the 4th floor is basically the recreation floor. Tony opened up a few levels to anyone who needed it last Snowmageddon and it sort of ended up staying that way. The 4th is where most of the city kids that don't have anywhere else to go come and hang out and do homework and play video games. There's even a jungle gym area for the younger kids," he said as they exited the elevator. 

The receptionist there eyed the four of them oddly until she saw their gold badges and then waved them in. "Most of the kids only have white badges," Peter said. 

"Because public access floors are coded white," Shuri surmised. 

They walked through the doors and saw mostly a few young mothers with toddlers, but further spread out across the room were teenagers that had already gotten out of school the jungle gym was sectioned off in a glass room, so the sound didn't escape, but the mothers could sit and watch their children without having to hear the joyous screams. There were two rooms next to the jungle gym, one labeled video games and the other labeled music. The rest of the room was mostly tables and comfortable couches and chairs. There were several bookshelves in the left-back corner and a row of laptops and StarkPads on a shelf against the back wall. 

"How does Stark keep them from stealing?" Riri asked, eyes wide. 

"Everything completely deactivates if it leaves the room," Peter said. 

"Do you come down here a lot?" Shuri asked. 

"I used to before I became a MINION," Peter told her. "My apartment was old, and in the winter it was cold, it's the safest place to be if your parents or guardians have to work long hours like my Aunt May does." 

Harley and Riri nodded, but Shuri frowned. "What else did you want to show us?" she asked. 

"The next two levels are pretty similar, but more couches and chairs. Tony didn't want to outright install cots unless it's an emergency. The couches are good for small naps though." 

Peter ushered the three of them back through the elevator. "As MINIONS we don't really need to go to any of the other levels very often, but 11-20 are for Law and Accounting, and their badges are Red or Yellow. 21-30 are reserved for Electronics, while 31-40 are for the Engineers, which are the group I've worked with the most. 41-50 is Medical Innovations, as well as level 50 being the level we would go to if we got a small workplace injury or if we get sick." he told them as they rocketed back up to level 54. 

"MINIONS get levels 51-53 for lab space and any living space that is needed when projects run through the night. They also have a cafeteria on level 53 as well. But we're gold badges, so we get to stop at level 54 now, which is where the Avenger Labs are kept." 

The doors opened, and Riri and Harley let out huge gasps. Every Avenger that Tony gave any equipment to had their own dedicated space in the vast lab. Upfront and center were the Iron Man and War Machine armors, followed quickly by other Avengers. Widow Bites were strewn across a table, as well as what looked like an electric baton. The next table had a few harmless-looking arrows, but Peter knew better than to touch them. Next, a mold of Steve's head had a helmet on it, with three different helmets next to it, each of them containing writing on them. There were other tables, each of them tagged with whichever Avenger's equipment they held. 

Harley and Riri both went to the Iron Man armor and started talking rapidly about it, while Shuri went to go inspect the Widow's bites. Peter kept catching glimpses of Harley and Riri's conversation and walked back over to them. 

"Here," he said, and opened a window out of the air for them to look at. The blue holographic window hovered in front of them, completely silencing both of them. 

Harley hesitantly touched it and dragged it over the Iron Man armor, where it let him see the innards of the circuitry. 

"Holy shit," Riri muttered and copied what Peter had done earlier to open her own window. 

"This is so badass, this is the best day of my friggen life," Harley told Peter. 

"Don't forget about your chemistry project," Peter told him in a sing-song voice. 

Harley barked out a laugh. "I'll do chemistry projects for the rest of my life if it means I get to do stuff like this all day." 

Peter laughed back at him and grabbed his hand. "C' mon," he said, and then grabbed Riri's hands. "You can look at the armor later, you've got some scientists to meet." 

Peter took them to the next floor up to meet Bruce and Jane, and then to level 56 to meet Helen. He skipped Avengers Medical Space, and their own lab space to show them Tony's and the Guest Lab, where they ran into Scott. 

"Cassie is upstairs," he told Peter, "she wanted to see the Bartons' for dinner." 

"Cool! That's next on our tour," Peter told him with a grin. 

Riri waved goodbye to him as they made their way back to the elevator. "Who was that?" she asked.

"Oh, that's Ant-man!" Peter told her. "Hank and Tony get into lots of arguments about the Ant-man suit being allowed on Stark Property, but Cassie likes it here, so everyone is over Hank yelling about it." 

They exited the elevator. "Floor 88 is where everyone gathers the most, we've got a huge kitchen and dining area for when we have Avengers Dinners, and the next floor up is the Rec Room for the Avenger Kids, and then the Avenger's Training room, and then the conference room!" Peter says, listing everything off on his fingers. 

"Who are you showing around Peter?" Wanda asks, coming out of the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn. 

"Princess Shuri, I think you've met Wanda before, but this is Riri Williams," Peter said, holding out his hand towards Riri who gave an excited wave and held out her hand for a handshake.

"And I'm Harley," Harley said, still looking around the room. 

"New uh, Minions? Yes?" Wanda asked. 

"Not quite," Peter told her. "We haven't decided on a new name for us." 

"Mm," Wanda said. "Well, I am going to watch Steve introduce Star Wars to Bucky if you would like to be entertained by this as well." 

"Oh this I gotta see, " Riri said and started to follow Wanda into the TV area. Shuri and Harley quickly followed. 

"FRIDAY can you upload the rest of the tour onto everyone's StarkPads as well as a cheatsheet to who lives on which floor."

"Of course, Peter." 

"You're such a good tour guide," Pepper said, coming out of the kitchen as well. 

Peter flushed. "Just part of the job," he mumbled, ducking his head. 

She smiled at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go see Bucky get his mind blown by speeders." 

"Wait, don't tell me we're starting with the prequels?" 

"Of course not," Pepper said. "I would never let Steve do that to Bucky."


	6. Chapter 6

"So, does he know?" Ned asked the next morning at school.

Peter paused, craning his neck around to see if Harley had made it back from his locker yet. When he didn't see the other boy, he leaned in. "No, Tony told him I know Spiderman and help out with his equipment, but not anything else." 

"So keep it on the DL," Ned said, winking at Peter. 

Harley slouched into the chair beside Peter. "Hey," he said to Peter, then tilted his head at Ned. 

"Oh! This is my best friend Ned," Peter told him, leaning back a little so they could see each other better. 

Ned grinned at him and waved. Harley nodded back. Peter frowned, wondering at the practically cold reception Harley was giving Ned compared to yesterdays' confidence. 

"Yo," MJ said, sliding into her seat as the bell rang. "Leeds, Parker, Keener." She nodded to each of them as she spoke their names and then stared at the teacher. 

Harley looked startled at her appearance and looked over at Peter. "You'll get used it," Peter whispered, pulling his book out of his bag. 

\--

By lunch, Harley had thawed the slightest bit and was talking about the Mandarin Situation to Ned and Parker. MJ was listening in every few moments but also scribbling away in her journal. 

"So then, Tony-" Harley said, but got cut off when another person stopped at their table. 

"Not another one," Flash groaned out. Jason and Seymour stopped to see what Flash was talking about and smirked at Harley. 

"Another what?" Harley asked, his mouth turning down. Peter's spider-sense started to warn him of danger, but he wasn't sure if the warning was coming from Harley or Flash. 

"Another loser trying to use Tony Stark's name to gain some sort of social standing in school," Flash explained slowly as if Harley was an idiot. 

"I mean, it's not like some hick from Bum Fuck knows Tony Stark," Jason agreed. Seymour snickered, covering his mouth. 

Harley blinked and then grinned at them. "Right, yeah, because why would I come to a new school and talk about people I don't know with such familiarity. Clearly, it's so people will like me. I mean I know I don't have money to make friends for me like you do, so I just make people up." 

Peter snorted before he could help himself. "Shut the hell up Penis." 

Peter's face instantly went warm, and he ducked his head to hide his anger. 

"What the fuck did you just say," Harley asked. His voice lost any humor it had at the beginning of the conversation and dropped to a lower register. His voice was quiet, but high schoolers were like sharks, always ready to sense a fight. The noise in the cafeteria instantly fell from a dull roar to a murmur. Peter felt Ned tense up on the other side of him. 

"Awwww, do you have a little crush on Penis, New Kid?" Flash asked, leaning in close to Harley. "I wouldn't, he's a little-" 

Harley grabbed his shirt collar and yanked him close. "Shut the hell up," he turned, still holding Flash's collar. "How long has he been fucking with you, Parker?" 

Peter opened his mouth. "Lies," MJ said, pointing at him before he could even do such a thing, and then flipped to a page in her journal. "Two years, six months, and 15 days." 

Harley used his free hand to point at her. "See, I like you," he told her. "Teachers?" 

"Peter won't narc," Ned said, and Flash took a moment to try and shove Harley away from him. Harley's grip was still tight on his collar. 

"Ahuh, well, that's fine, you've got me now," he said and slammed his fist into Flash's mouth. 

"You've got some nerve, coming over to our table and trying to be a dick on my second day of school. I can only imagine you call Peter such nice things because yours is small and makes you feel inadequate. I can't help you with that, I can, however, help Peter with the pest problem he's seemingly had for two years though." 

"Harley," Peter said but didn't feel like he was protesting enough. He now knew why Tony and Harley got along so well. They were the _same_ person. __

_ _Mrs. Warren and Mr. Morita were headed towards the table, faces stormy. Flash was cradling his jaw, and Harley let go of him, sneering at Jason and Seymour, like they were next. _ _

_ _"Say that shit in front of me again and you won't get off so easily next time," Harley said, standing up and handing his tray off to Peter. _ _

_ _"Dump that for me, please?" he asked and nodded at Morita, who had finally reached their table. _ _

_ _"What is the meaning of this?" he snapped, looking at all of them. His eye caught on the bruise developing on Flash's face and his back straightened. _ _

_ _"Unlike any previous schools you may have attended Mr. Keener, we do not take physical violence lightly." He said. _ _

_ _Flash smirked, as well as he could with a hurt mouth. _ _

_ _"What about bullying?" Harley asked. "Because my guardian won't hesitate to pull me out of this school regardless of your reputation if you put up with as much bullying as I've seen in the less than two days that I've been here," Harley snapped. _ _

_ _Peter was staring at Harley, his blue eyes were clear, like ice, and his arms were crossed over his chest. His face was flushed red, and his fists were still clenched like he'd still like to try and rearrange Flash's face. _ _

_ _"The only bully I see here is the one who has punched another student without provocation," Mr. Morita said. _ _

_ _Harley and MJ both scoffed, and even Mrs. Warren looked a little wary at that statement. _ _

_ _Mr. Morita didn't back down from his statement, and Harley stood straighter at that. "Well it looks like you're going to get your wish, Flash, and you get to meet Tony Stark in the flesh. He might even pull me out of school for this shit," Harley snarled. "Lord knows he's gonna yank Parker out once he finds out that Parker's been bullied for two years." _ _

_ _Flash blinked and looked at Seymour and Jason as if they were any more aware of the situation than he was. _ _

_ _"Oh nooo," Peter groaned, dropping his head on to the table. "You didn't, it's for emergencies Harley." _ _

_ _"Your aunt is in surgery all week, and Tony hates board meetings," Harley said with a shrug. _ _

_ _"10 to 1 he shows up in the suit," MJ muttered, and Peter groaned again. _ _

_ _"Mr. Keener, you will stop this at once and come to the office. Tony Stark has no authority over Peter Parker's education-"_ _

_ _"What," Harley said, and even Peter looked up in confusion. _ _

_ _"Tony Stark has been on my guardianship papers for months now, Mr. Morita." _ _

_ _"Peter, honey," Mrs. Warren said sympathy in her voice, and Peter blinked. _ _

_ _Ned and MJ looked at each other with wide eyes. Peter sat back. His teachers thought he had been lying about his Stark Internship. His teachers thought he had been lying about even knowing Tony Stark. Not only that, they had completely disregarded an actual Legal document that his Aunt May had submitted to the school. _ _

_ _"As nice as it is to realize that you all think I'm crazy, Tony Stark has been my co-guardian for the last six months. It's a legal, binding document that means that Tony Stark does have the authority to remove me from this school if he has a reason to, and he clearly does," Peter said. _ _

_ _His voice had cracked several times during that statement, but he swallowed his tears down. He was not going to cry in the middle of the cafeteria, where people already thought he was crazy. He picked up his bag and handed his tray off to Ned. _ _

_ _"Does anyone want to explain why I got a panic call and why my interns look like they're about to cry or murder someone?" Tony Stark asked, the suit disengaging as he walked into the cafeteria._ _


	7. Chapter 7

Tony had started off the meeting in a seat but was now pacing around the small room as Harley, Peter, then Flash had told their sequence of events. 

"Peter, how long has Flash been sexually harassing you?" 

Flash scoffed, and Tony stood up straight, shoulders back and eyes wild. "I want him out of this room now," He told Morita. 

Morita looked at Flash, then looked at Tony before nodding at Mrs. Warren. "Could you please escort Mr. Thompson into the Hallway." 

Flash gathered his bag and walked into the hallway, head held high. Mrs. Warren serenely followed him, though her mouth was held tightly like she wanted to say something. 

"Now," Tony said once Flash had left the room. "Take it from someone who has gone to several thousand sexual harassment seminars. I've been to them as Tony Stark, probable womanizer, and also Tony Stark, CEO. If someone is calling you nicknames with a sexual tilt to them that make you uncomfortable, that is sexual harassment. He may not have touched you, but he may have cornered you away from your friends and made you uncomfortable with his words, and that is sexual harassment. I want to know how long Flash has been sexually harassing you."

Peter looked down at his hands. "He never touched me." 

"He didn't have to," Tony said quickly. "He made you uncomfortable." 

"Two years," Peter blurted out. He didn't look up, he didn't want to see anyone's reactions. "I tried ignoring it like you're supposed to, and he never stopped, and it just kept getting worse."

"I know," Tony said, picking at his slacks before squatting next to Peter's chair. "Look at me, Peter, I know, okay?" 

Peter finally looked up and launched himself at Tony, grabbing a hug out of him. Tony sighed, and this time hugged him back. "You're good kid, it's all good." 

Peter sniffled a bit, and hurriedly wiped at his eyes. Tony squeezed him one last time, then let go, moving to stand up with a low groan. "So old," Peter mumbled, getting a smile from Tony and Harley. 

"Okay, first things first, I'm talking to Peter's other guardian tonight about what we're doing in regards to his schooling, as he does have friends here that he loves. But if he does choose to stay, this Flash kid is not in the class with him, I don't care if Flash has to get kicked out of a class or not. Second, as much as it kills me to say this, we aren't planning on suing the kid right now, because I have a feeling it would destroy Peter more than the other kid." 

Peter felt his face warm up and ducked his head down again. Harley gently nudged his arm from beside him and gave him a small smile. Peter smiled back. 

"Now, another worrying topic," Tony said, waving off Morita's attempt to talk, "Is the fact that not only did other students not believe that Peter was interning with us, but the teachers didn't believe him either, which means that none of his internship paperwork has been filed, am I correct?" 

Mr. Morita frowned. "I'll have to check with-"

"Mrs. Markson took my paperwork, and actually keeps up with what I submit, so she probably does believe me, or at least thinks that I actually intern at Stark Industries," Peter said, not wanting to bother Mrs. Markson. 

"So one of you paid attention to legal documentation," Tony said with a sigh. "This lack of trust from teachers is a real blow because I would love to keep Peter and Harley here since Peter is ingrained to the school already. However, they both have options. Both of them could still take the SHSATS and qualify for all of the schools. And if they didn't want to go to any of those schools I could home school them, and or they could probably get into college if we really wanted to push it. " Tony paused and finally sat down in a chair. 

"Mr.-"

"Doctor!" Harley interjected.

Mr. Morita sighed and closed his eyes. "Dr. Stark, I think you are going a little too far with this. Mr. Thompson will be handled appropriately, without a lawsuit, and I will speak to my staff in regards to Peter and Harley's guardianship and internship with Stark Industries." 

"I suppose that's acceptable on a probationary basis. We'll give it a month," Tony said. 

"Now, moving on to Mr. Keener." 

"One-day suspension, send all his work home with Peter tomorrow. He's not missing out on his education because he stood up for a friend, but I understand your need to dissuade violence." 

Harley's mouth twisted up into a grimace, but Mr. Morita sighed. "Acceptable." 

"Good, now that the day is mostly done, I'm checking my kids out early today, not like any work would get done around them anyways."


End file.
